How to Change Solicitors

If you are unhappy with your solicitor, change

It is easier than you think to change solicitors and most professional solicitors do not want to keep a client who no longer trusts their judgment.

The real problems arise when “Claim factory” firms, who have bought your case, are very reluctant to give up their investment when they have paid £750.00 to your insurance broker or the Claims Management Company you can understand why they do not want their referral fee - that is you - walking away. 

Why would you change Solicitors?

Some insurers and regulated Claims Management firms charge £1,000.00 or more, as well as a percentage of the Solicitors’ fees in larger cases, so your case has cost your Panel Solicitor a lot of money.

Corners are often cut to increase rapidly shrinking profit margins - and quite often the only clue you have got that the person dealing with your case has no recognised legal qualification is the grand sounding title they have. Claims technicians, case managers, case handlers, injury claims consultants and litigation executives all sound like they know what they’re doing, but potentially you could apply for one of those jobs tomorrow - and get one.

There are three recognised and regulated branches of the legal profession.  If you have a Solicitor, a Barrister, or a Fellow or Member of the Institute of Legal Executives (F.ILEX or M.ILEX) working on your case then you can probably rest assured that the person dealing with your case is qualified.  However, how experienced they are in any particular field is something on which you should trust your gut instinct.

How do I know if I have got a Panel Solicitor?

If a Solicitor, or more likely an unqualified clerk calling from a firm of solicitors has phoned you or written to you out of the blue, then more likely than not you have a panel solicitor acting for you. These are firms who have bought cases in bulk from insurers.  The arrangements change from firm to firm and insurance broker to insurance broker, but usually batches of 10 to 50 cases are sent to the panel firm and the panel firm could have as little as 24 hours to decide if they want to run your case.

On an all too frequent basis we see sound personal injury cases, sometimes involving catastrophic injuries, rejected out of hand.

Quite often, the solicitor has not seen any witness evidence, any police report, spoken to witnesses or the police.  Even worse, in some cases, they have, and have misapplied the law, or relied on the wrong facts to make their decision.

So I’ve got a useless firm, with an equally useless person advising me… What can I do?

That answer is easy.  Change Solicitors.  No reputable firm or Solicitor wants to keep a client who no longer trusts the quality of the legal advice he or she is receiving.

Is my panel firm specialist?

They may do thousands of similar claims, so can say that they do a lot of a particular type of work - whether it is whiplash claims, motorcycle claims, or car claims.  The question for you is how well they are doing their job.  It is almost impossible for any lawyer to do a proper job where their client does not trust the lawyer’s judgment.  In our area of motorcycle claims, one of the most common problems we come across are lawyers or claims handlers who have no idea of the physics and behaviour of motorcycles under braking, accelerating, or cornering.  And if your lawyer does not understand how your accident happened, how will they ever be able to present your case?

It takes 5 years or more to qualify as a solicitor or barrister, so why would you trust your case to a “claims handler”?

Only an idiot would trust his teeth to a "tooth handling executive", rather than a qualified registered dentist, but people entrust their legal cases to “case handling executives” every day. 

Most of the people who work for the Claims factories are from the insurance industry – we know – we have been approached by them and asked to teach them the basics of motorcycle claims.

Your insurance company refers (for a fee) your case to a claims management company who in turn sells the case on to an unqualified clerk, who may have some supervision from a qualified solicitor - but don’t count on it.

Our real expertise is motorcycle claims, and often we take over cases where the claims executive clearly does not begin to understand the basics of the law

So how do I change Solicitors?

First of all find the solicitor who you want to act in place of the panel solicitor.  All specialist solicitors are used to taking over claims and our procedure is pretty standard across the profession.  You ask us or another firm to act, you sign a release form - we or your other solicitors send it off to your current solicitors with a formal promise to protect the file and a few weeks later - we get the papers.

Very occasionally the old firm of solicitors resists.  A swift application to the High Court deals with this in just about every case without ever having to go in front of a Judge.  The one time a Solicitor refused to hand over the papers to us despite the application, the Court ordered the former solicitor to pay costs of over £2,000.00 and the judge struck out all of his costs for acting.  Whilst your panel firm may be quite arrogant on the telephone as to handing over the papers a High Court summons tends to knock them off their high horse.

Will my Legal Expenses Insurance still cover me?

You cannot be forced to use a solicitor against your will, regardless of what your legal expenses insurers tell you.  The Financial Ombudsman Service is sympathetic to people who have lost faith or confidence in their solicitors, or want to choose their own solicitor after their legal expenses insurer made a bad decision about who dealt with their case.

Under the The Insurance Companies (Legal Expenses Insurance) Regulations 1990 once proceedings are issued (and this is when you do need insurance) your legal expense insurers have no choice, they have to insure you, but you do not even need to go this far.

We have referred just about every conceivable policy of legal expenses insurance to the Financial Ombudsman Service.  Rather than have a test case in front of the Ombudsman every single insurer has confirmed cover on acceptable terms.  The legal expenses insurers talk a good fight but they don’t like to get into the ring.

We have no problem at all acting on any form of Legal Expenses Insurance, and the bike brokers know not to resist us. If the terms are unfair to you - we will advise you to challenge them, and we will deal with all of the technical issues.

I want to change solicitors!

If after reading the above advice you feel that you would rather change solicitors to a professional and specialist motorcycle firm, such as White Dalton Motorcycle Solicitors, then call us on 0800 783 6191 to discuss your case with one of our lawyers.

Glossary

Claims Management Company

Insurance Broker

Solicitor

Barrister

Member of the Institute of Legal Executives

Legal Expenses Insurance

Financial Ombudsman Service